Police ‘covered up child sex abuse by actors and priests’
John Simpson March 29 2015

Actors, priests, judges and entertainers have been implicated in the latest allegations that Scotland Yard covered up establishment child sex abuse, the police watchdog has confirmed.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has begun three more investigations into claims of corruption in the Metropolitan Police’s investigations into alleged paedophile rings involving prominent figures spanning 35 years.

The new investigations mean that there are now 17 inquiries into allegations that senior officers “hindered or halted” investigations and surveillance operations, suppressed evidence and ordered detectives to limit their inquiries when police officers, politicians or famous people were implicated.http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/crime/article4395594.ece
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HEAVILY lawyered US network HBO aired its highly anticipated Scientology documentary overnight, and with it some startling allegations about the organisation and its two most famous members.

Directed by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, the film, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, is based on a book-length expose by Lawrence Wright and shares the stories of those who escaped the religion, including high-ranking officials.

Detailing claims of psychological and physical abuse, former members share horrific and fascinating accounts of their time in the church — particularly about how its leader, David Miscavige, relies on stars like Tom Cruise and John Travolta to recruit and raise money, and how he keeps them on board.

The Church of Scientology is worth billions but, as it operates as a non-profit religious organisation, is exempt from taxation.

In the film, Wright says there are two ways the fast-growing organisation could be stopped; the first is a financial crackdown by the IRS, and the second is a high-profile backlash, which is even less likely....

According to the MailOnline’s review, the film claims Scientologists hold a “blackmail file” on Cruise and fellow Scientologist John Travolta, to stop them leaving the faith....

The claims have been disputed by the church, with Gibney outlining in the film their insistence that Scientology has no control over Cruise....

A man's ice addiction led him to violently rape and beat a Dutch tourist he had taken hostage during a six-week ordeal at a Melbourne hotel, a court hears.Alfio Granata has pleaded guilty to 14 charges over the incident at a Preston Hotel.
A man's ice addiction led him to violently rape and beat a Dutch tourist he had taken hostage during a six-week ordeal at a Melbourne hotel, a court has been told.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Enoch Powell is named by bishop in sex abuse probe: Scotland Yard to investigate satanic abuse claim - and demands to see filed held on serving MPs

Bishop of Durham Paul Butler names late Tory politician to Scotland Yard
Former Bishop of Monmouth, Dominic Walker, heard allegation in 1980s
Claim being examined by Operation Fenbridge - one of several such probes
Simon Heffer, Powell’s official biographer, branded allegations 'nonsense’

By Glen Owen and Brendan Carlin for The Mail on Sunday
29 March 2015
The probe into an alleged paedophile network at the heart of the British Establishment took an explosive turn last night with the revelation that Enoch Powell’s name has been passed to police.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the late Tory MP, one of the most prominent and divisive politicians of the 20th Century, has been named to Scotland Yard by the Bishop of Durham. The claims relate to ‘ritual satanic abuse’.

And in a further development to the sex-ring investigations, police are to be given access to secret files held on MPs in the House of Commons archives as they hunt for evidence on suspected abusers, including former Liberal MP Cyril Smith....

Mr Walker is believed to have warned the Right Rev Butler that at the time he was told of the claims against Powell, unsubstantiated allegations of satanic rituals – often involving the abuse of children – were widespread....

Bitcoin's Blockchain Offers Safe Haven For Malware And Child Abuse, Warns Interpol
Thomas Fox-Brewster Forbes Staff 3/27/2015
The blockchain, the public ledger of all Bitcoin transactions, has all kinds of good uses outside of providing stability for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, from decentralised data storage to super-flexible email. But it can also be put to malicious use. According to Interpol’s Christian Karam, speaking from the Black Hat Asia conference, it could be abused to store malware control mechanisms or provide access to illicit content such as child abuse images that would be extremely difficult to take down....http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/03/27/bitcoin-blockchain-pollution-a-criminal-opportunity/

Sierra Leone: Wife beating is still a common practice
28 March 2015
By Mariama Kandeh, Guest Writer, London, UK....

According to the Sierra Leone family support Unit, in 2012, the Western Area reported a total of 1,923 domestic violence cases while in 2013 the number rose to 2,073, the highest in the entire country and over 95% committed by husbands against their wives.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

"the first large, longitudinal study to track how victims of child abuse treat their own children has found little evidence of a cycle of violence, but suggests that sexual abuse and neglect may indeed be passed down the generations."

The notion that victims of physical abuse as kids are more likely to abuse their own children, often described as the "cycle of violence," is widely held but sparsely documented. Now, the first large, longitudinal study to track how victims of child abuse treat their own children has found little evidence of a cycle of violence, but suggests that sexual abuse and neglect may indeed be passed down the generations. The study, published this week in Science, also makes a controversial claim: that heightened surveillance of families with a history of abuse may have biased some studies taken as evidence for the cycle of violence.http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6229/1408.summary

THURSDAY, March 26, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Conventional wisdom says that abused children often grow up to be abusive parents, but a 30-year study of American families suggests it's more complicated than that.

In one striking finding, researchers uncovered little evidence that physical abuse is passed from one generation to the next.

"That was extremely surprising," said lead researcher Cathy Spatz Widom, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in New York City. "The theory has been that children of parents who were abused are at increased risk of physical abuse."

That theory has been supported by past research. But, Widom explained, those studies have been hampered by limitations, such as working "backward" -- starting with parents accused of abuse, and asking them if they'd been mistreated as kids.

"The problem there is, you miss the parents who were abused but did not go on to have these issues," Widom explained.

Her study, published in the March 27 issue of Science, followed two generations of families, including over 1,100 parents and their kids. More than half of the parents had been abused or neglected as children, back in the 1960s and 1970s; the rest had no history of abuse, but were from similar backgrounds.

To see whether the children of abused parents were at risk, Widom's team used three sources: Records from child protective services (CPS); interviews with parents; and interviews with their children once they were young adults.

Overall, the researchers found, children of abused parents were at no greater risk of physical abuse. And that was true whether the information came from parents' or children's reports, or CPS records.

Based on CPS reports, for example, almost 7 percent of kids born to abused parents suffered physical abuse, versus just over 5 percent of the comparison group -- a difference that was not statistically significant.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

(Reuters) - A Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing children in Poland and the Dominican Republic was sentenced to seven years in jail by a Polish court on Wednesday....

The priest, who under Polish law can only be identified as Wojciech G., was suspended by his religious order in the rural Dominican parish of Juncalito last year after local residents accused him of molesting altar boys, according to the church.

He was arrested after returning to his native Poland and was tried on 10 charges relating to child sex abuse and possessing pornographic images of children. The charges carried a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail.

Earlier in March, the priest offered to serve a seven-year jail term, under a part of Polish law that lets defendants file such motions without admitting guilt. Polish media have quoted the priest as saying he is not guilty....

The Vatican last year arrested a defrocked Polish archbishop, Jozef Wesolowski, former Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic, after he was accused of having sex with children during his posting.

Dartmouth College is investigating its Alpha Delta fraternity, inspiration for the movie "Animal House," for branding students' flesh as part of an initiation ritual.

The accusations, if proven by the school, could result in probation, suspension or permanent loss of recognition for the fraternity. The alleged incident occurred in the fall, Dartmouth said in a statement. The school didn't give further details.

Colleges across the U.S. have punished fraternities in recent weeks amid allegations of racism, hazing and offensive behavior toward women. Philip Hanlon, Dartmouth's president since 2013 and a former Alpha Delta member, has defended fraternity life while condemning "extreme behavior" that he said hurts the Hanover, New Hampshire, college and its reputation.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

"(Father) Sylvestre, like most predators, had been cunning. His public demonstrativeness cast doubt on anything he might be accused of doing behind closed doors, especially because he was such a powerful and beloved man."

Father Charlie had curious hands

In an exclusive story for the Star, bestselling novelist Lori Lansens recalls her childhood in Chatham, Ont., and her early encounters with Father Charles Sylvestre, later convicted of abusing dozens of girls.

Author Lori Lansens, pictured at her home in California. "God and Father Charlie were inextricably bound for me then," she writes, reflecting on her childhood in Chatham, Ont. "That confusing incident in the rectory stole them both, and made me question everything that I’d ever believed."
By: Lori Lansens Special to the Star, Published on Fri Mar 20 2015....

To hundreds of children during his lengthy residence at St. Ursula’s Parish, the priest was Father Charlie. A charismatic leader with sympathetic eyes, he roamed the hallways of our school and often walked the yard at recess, ready with his warm embrace. Sometimes he came into our classrooms and the teachers would sneak off for a cigarette break — so many of them smoked back then. He’d sit in the teacher’s big chair, gathering us close as we competed for the spot on his lap. I prayed that Father Charlie would favour me, as he clearly seemed to favour certain little girls....

When I was around 10 years old, I began to notice that Father Charlie had curious hands. They wouldn’t rest on a young girl’s shoulder, but encircle her waist or creep up her back, or touch the hair around her collarbone or at the back of her neck. He gave a lot of shoulder massages too. Had he always done that? Had my perception of his touching changed as I’d matured? I felt guilty and ashamed for wondering. He was a priest after all, and so it followed, in my young mind, that he was innocent and naive.

I was in the hallway with one of my Grade 5 classmates when Father Charlie appeared one day, spreading his arms to embrace us as he’d done since we were small children. He complimented my friend, an early bloomer, on her shamrock-patterned T-shirt as I seethed with envy. Then the priest fixed his gaze on her budding breasts and raised his index finger to touch her nipple, slowly tracing a series of shamrock graphics there as I watched in silent horror.....

(Somewhere around Grade 7, rumours had begun to circulate about our beloved Father Charlie. Maybe there had always been rumours and we just hadn’t heard them. Some of the girls had nicknames for him — Father Feeler and Sylvestre the Molester. Lisa and I didn’t believe the talk, which was usually vague and improbable sounding. His awkward affections had just been misunderstood, we insisted.)....

Then we pulled open the closet door to see a hefty, barely concealed collection of Playboy magazines. Lisa and I clutched each other, screaming silently.

A priest with Playboy? We thought it was hilarious. At least that was our first reaction. Then unease set in. The alcohol and the magazines were nothing we hadn’t glimpsed before at the homes of friends with older brothers, but this was Father Charlie....

I stiffened when he stepped up behind me and cringed when he touched a ringlet at my nape. I didn’t dare catch Lisa’s eye. The priest asked us questions as he played with my curls and I pretended not to notice when he pressed his pelvis into my bony upper back, concerned with how embarrassed Father Charlie would be when he realized that his private parts were touching my spine. When he put his big hands on my shoulders and began a too-rough massage, I seized up. His breath reeked of whiskey and made me feel sick.

He told me to relax but I couldn’t let my shoulders down. His hands were digging below my collarbone into the flesh of my tender chest and it hurt. I tried to unclench and felt awful for disappointing him, even as I wondered if it was possible that he was bumping his genitals against my back intentionally.....

I was in my late 30s and living in Toronto when two brave women whose names I knew, one a classmate’s sister, stepped forward, charging that Charles Sylvestre had abused them when they were students at St. Ursula School. The lawsuit against the London Diocese made headline news. The floodgates opened and more victims came forward from St. Ursula, and other parishes too, in a serial abuse career spanning four decades and five parishes. Charles Sylvestre was charged with fondling, digital penetration and rape in cases involving dozens of little girls. In many instances the abuse began when girls were asked to come and fold bulletins at the rectory after school, or to count the collection, or help with a chore. Sometimes he assaulted the children during confession.

Sylvestre, like most predators, had been cunning. His public demonstrativeness cast doubt on anything he might be accused of doing behind closed doors, especially because he was such a powerful and beloved man. The priest pleaded guilty to 47 counts of sexual assault and died a few months into a three-year prison term. But there were many more victims, other women who have come forward and continue to launch lawsuits against the institutions responsible for keeping pedophiles like Charles Sylvestre in positions of power over children..... http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2015/03/20/father-charlie-had-curious-hands.html

A Chi Phi fraternity pledge who entered a “ritual casket” during their initiation ceremony went to the hospital after a member “curb stomped” the casket and broke through it, according to records obtained by The Badger Herald. The incident sparked a University of Wisconsin investigation that ultimately led to the fraternity’s March 18 termination.

Committee on Student Organizations unanimously approved Chi Phi’s termination due to hazing violations. CSO’s investigation began after the committee received a report on Jan. 20 with the allegations....

CSO found the fraternity had violated four of 12 items on the Registered Student Organization code of conduct list, three of which prohibit acts of violence, endangerment, sexual assault and substance abuse.

The decision is based off the January report and interviews that the Dean of Students’ office conducted....
The committee found Chi Phi caused “serious physical, psychological and emotional injuries” during its initiation. Among the activities that caused these injuries, CSO cited “food deprivation, stints of hooded isolation, loss of personal liberty, sleeping in a confined attic” and the ritual casket ceremony.

About 20 new members were “crammed” into space in the attic, Knueve said.

Fukuoka bans yakuza finger cutting
By on March 25, 2015
Members of the Dojin-kai are banned from coercing fellow gangsters into cutting off their fingers
FUKUOKA (TR) – Following recent incidents of abuse, the Fukuoka Prefectural Public Safety Commission on Tuesday announced a ban on a ritualistic form of atonement for one of the prefecture’s organized crime groups, reports the Nishi Nippon Shimbun (March 24).

In a meeting with a 41-year-old upper member of the Dojin-kai, whose headquarters is located in Kurume City, the commission said members of the gang would be prohibited from facilitating the removal of a finger of a fellow gangster.

Under the mandate, the act of coercion, whether in a meeting or through telephone or letter, and the provision of a cutting tool are banned acts.

The initiative, based on the Anti-Organized Crime Law enacted in 1991, is a nationwide first. The ban extends for a period of one year.

Monday, March 23, 2015

LDS Church: No tolerance for sex abuse in scouting
By Scott Zamost and Kyra Phillips, CNN
Mon March 23, 2015

Former Boy Scout sues Mormon church for sexual abuse

(CNN)The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is the largest sponsor of Boy Scout troops in the United States, says the church has strong measures in place to prevent the sexual abuse of scouts, as claims have been made it hasn't done enough.

In the first interview about allegations of abuse in Mormon church-sponsored scouting troops, Church Elder L. Whitney Clayton told CNN that the church is at the forefront for prevention of child abuse....

Over several months, CNN examined allegations of abuse that were detailed in at least five lawsuits filed against the church and the scouts.

But Clayton said the church today is proactive, even constructing its buildings "in such a way as to try to avoid any situation where child abuse could occur."....

The scoutmaster, Vance Hein, had been forced in resign from scouting in the early 1990s after reports surfaced that he failed to report a fellow scoutmaster who was engaged in homosexual activities. That scoutmaster ended up going to prison for sexual assaults on minors.

Hein's name was added to the Boy Scouts of America's ineligible volunteer files, which are widely known as the "perversion files." The documents, which were made public in 2012, are lists of scout leaders suspected of sexual abuse or homosexual activity.

However, three years after being kicked out of scouting, Hein was allowed to rejoin the scouts after getting letters of recommendation attesting to his character. One of those letters was from Hein's influential Mormon Bishop Jack Moyer, who wrote that Hein was "highly respected and liked."....

But in a deposition taken as part of the lawsuit last year, he acknowledged that he would not have written the letter knowing what he later found out about Hein.

The lawsuit charged that Hein "actively groomed young boys under his charge for later sexual molestation." Hein eventually was convicted of molesting Novak. He is now in prison for violating probation in the Novak case....http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/23/us/lds-church-boy-scouts/

....Working with rare footage, Gibney burrows into the enigma of Scientology’s founder, L Ron Hubbard, capturing glints of delusion and megalomania. Hubbard‘s rise began in the 1930s, and he quickly became an astoundingly prolific science-fiction writer. But then in 1950 he published Dianetics, the perpetual bestseller in which he helped invent the principles of the therapeutic ‘self-help’ books that grew hugely popular by the 1970s. In Scientology, he wrapped these ideas around a theological core of interplanetary gibberish that could have come straight out of one his pulp novels. Going Clear captures how Hubbard fused reality, fantasy and the pursuit of enlightenment in a way that, according to the film’s witnesses, expressed his own highly unstable and even violent nature – at one point Gibney shows how Hubbard even told his wife that one of their children had died, just to manipulate her. Hubbard wound up a sea-faring outlaw on the run from US tax officials, and in Going Clear he emerges as a broken dictator who founded a religion based on control because he was so desperate to control his own demons.

Hubbard constructed Scientology around a ritual known as the 'audit', which is like a conventional therapy session fused with a Catholic confession and a visit to Room 101 in Orwell’s 1984. A member sits down and digs into their secrets and private traumas, as the auditor asks questions and takes notes, recording the subject’s responses on an ‘E-meter’, a gadget invented by Hubbard. Haggis, a Scientologist for 35 years before his highly publicised break with the Church in 2009, tells us how incredibly good an audit session could make him feel, as if he’d purged himself of all his toxins. Gibney suggests Hubbard’s method of healing was really just a superficial take on Freudian therapy, a comparison that Hubbard scorned – though only after his techniques had been rejected as rubbish by legitimate psychiatrists. Going Clear, however, suggests a dramatic difference between auditing and traditional therapy: it claims that the Church of Scientology holds on to the notes from the sessions and uses them to blackmail its members into staying....

Gibney interviews a handful of high-level Scientology officers who left the Church and are now willing to denounce it. Marty Rathbun, who spent years as Miscavige’s right-hand man, was at the very centre of the citadel, and his testimony has an unsettling authority. He alleges that Miscavige, in actions worthy of the Khmer Rouge, subjected his loyal officials to rituals of abuse, making them ‘confess’ to imagined crimes and assaulting them if they didn’t comply. The astounding thing is that when the victims were given the chance to exit this torture program, none of them did. They thought they deserved to be punished.... http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150320-a-scary-must-see-scientology-doc

Claims a police officer was threatened with the Official Secrets Act over allegations of child sex abuse relating to Cyril Smith are to be investigated.

The Manchester Evening News has reported claims an officer was warned to keep quiet after he found the former Rochdale MP at a house with two boys.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the unnamed former officer had not reported the claims to police.

But GMP said they would be examined as part of its alleged "cover-up" probe.

Twenty-three people have claimed they were abused by the Liberal MP, who died aged 82 in 2010....
Northamptonshire Police is also probing claims police released Smith after child pornography was found in the boot of his car on the M1 in the 1980s.http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-31965044

Cyril Smith M1 arrest to be probed by Northamptonshire Police
By Sally Chidzoy BBC East home affairs correspondent 9 March 2015
A cold case unit is to investigate claims police released MP Cyril Smith after images of child abuse were found in the boot of his car.

It is understood the Liberal MP, who died in 2010, was stopped on the M1 in Northamptonshire during the 1980s.

But he was released from police custody after making a telephone call to an unidentified third party in London, it has been claimed.

Northamptonshire Police is probing the circumstances around the arrest....

Johannesburg - The case against a church pastor, two grandparents and an uncle of a 9-year-old boy who allegedly molested the child in a satanic ritual has been transferred to a regional court.

The child’s paternal grandparents, an uncle and the 54-year-old pastor were arrested last month after an SAPS Occult Related Crimes Unit investigation.

Police suspect the group brought the then 7-year-old to the Full Gospel Church of God in Witfield, Boksburg....http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/boy-s-satanic-rape-case-postponed-1.1834279
Lord Janner: Inquiry into 'limited' child abuse investigation 19 March 2015
Further inquiries are to be carried out into whether detectives were told to limit a child abuse investigation centred on the former MP Lord Janner.

A home belonging to the 86-year-old peer, who was a Labour MP in Leicester for 27 years, was searched in 2013.

Last year it was reported that in 1989 a detective sergeant was told not to arrest Mr Janner or search his home.

U.S. jails sex-trafficked kids in human rights abuse, groups say
By Stella Dawson Mon Mar 16, 2015
WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The United States violates human rights by treating sex-trafficked children as criminals and throwing them into jail, rights groups told an international commission on Monday.

Federal and international law requires that children in the commercial sex trade are treated as victims of trafficking, not as prostitutes.

But most U.S. states and localities fail to apply the law, the groups said at a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which reviews human rights abuses in the region....

"When girls are incarcerated for the experience of being propertied and serially raped, their ability to return to family, community and school is less likely, which only serves to tighten the traffickers' control," they said in prepared remarks.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Top cop in Britain questioned by his own detectives for role in alleged cover-up of sex abuse claims against Tony Blair minister BY Jason Silverstein NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Top British detectives are questioning an unlikely suspect in a high-stakes child abuse investigation: their boss.

Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is getting grilled by his own detectives over an alleged police cover-up connected to former Prime Minister Tony Blair's administration, according to the Mirror.

Hogan-Howe was an Assistant Chief Constable for the Merseyside Police in 1998, when the department uncovered claims that one of Blair’s ministers was a suspected pedophile.

Hogan-Howe now says he “does not recall details about the investigation” or any suspects, according to a statement from the Metropolitan Police Service.

But a source close to the investigation told the Mirror it is “inconceivable” that Hogan-Howe and his cohorts weren’t aware of the accusations.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Inside the horrific Mexican satanist 'Black Mass' with live sacrifices

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

'The blood pumped from a still-beating heart is the purest form of energy': Inside the horrific Mexican satanist 'Black Mass' with live sacrifices that shocked disgusted tourists

Tourists watched massacre of live animals including goats and chickens that horrified tourists seeking 'spirituality'
American visitors said: 'The next step would be human sacrifice'. Others questioned whether they'd done it already
Twisted cult believe smearing blood of sacrificed animals can save lives and used it to pledge souls to Satan

By Alasdair Baverstock In Veracruz, Mexico For Mailonline

13 March 2015

Horrified tourists have told of their shock and disgust after attending a devil-worshipping 'Black Mass' in Mexico.

They looked on as chicken and goats were sacrificed before their fresh blood was poured over participants who had pledged their souls to Satan.

At the twisted cult's annual 'Black Mass' in the Mexican state of Veracruz, people from across the world to seek change in their lives by taking part in devil worship.

Worshippers indulge in brutal animal sacrifice, dance before burning pentagrams and disappear into a subterranean cave where solemn oaths are sworn before a large statue of the devil and a committee of shamans....

In total, eight animals were sacrificed during the ritual.

Following the sacrifices, the shamans stood before a large burning pentagram and attempted to summon the devil through their chants, before descending with the new adherents of the black mass to an underground cave decorated with inverted crosses, animal carcasses and a large statue of Satan with an erect penis.

The eight shamans gathered round each individual penitent and swore oaths to the effect that their soul now belonged to Satan, and that if their promises to the devil were not upheld then their spirit would be forfeit.

A dam of official silence around child abuse in Britain began to break after the 2011 death of entertainer Jimmy Savile.
By Jill Lawless, Associated Press March 17, 2015

London — A toxic mix of misuse of power and official silence has become Britain's shame as the country faces up to a growing web of evidence that the abuse of vulnerable children by powerful men was covered up for decades.

Several lawmakers said Tuesday that former detectives and intelligence officers should be guaranteed protection from prosecution if they speak out about child abuse by senior police, politicians, and other prominent people.

On Monday, the BBC's "Newsnight" program reported that an ex-detective had told it that a lawmaker, Cyril Smith, was arrested in the early 1980s as part of an investigation into child-sex parties, but was released hours later.

He said officers were ordered to hand over notebooks and video footage from their undercover operation, and were told they would be violating the Official Secrets Act if they revealed what had happened.

The BBC did not identify the former detective because of the legal threat hanging over him.

A Roman Catholic archbishop in Australia was charged Tuesday with covering up for a pedophile priest during the 1970s.

Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson said he was disappointed that New South Wales state police had decided to charge him with concealing a serious child sexual abuse offence. Wilson said he would fight the charge, which carries a potential two-year prison sentence.

The charge alleges the 64-year-old failed to report child sex abuse carried out by priest James Fletcher during the 1970s when they both served in the town of Maitland, north of Sydney.

Fletcher died in prison aged 65 in 2006, a year into an almost eight-year sentence for raping an altar boy between 1989 and 1991.

"The suggestion appears to be that I failed to bring to the attention of police a conversation I am alleged to have had in 1976, when I was a junior priest, that a now deceased priest had abused a child," Wilson said in a statement.

Cyril Smith child abuse probe 'scrapped after his arrest'
By Nick Hopkins and Jake Morris BBC Newsnight 16 March 2015
An undercover police operation that gathered evidence of child abuse by Cyril Smith and other public figures was scrapped shortly after the MP was arrested, BBC Newsnight has been told.

The Liberal MP, who died in 2010, was held during a 1980s probe into alleged sex parties with teenage boys in south London, a source told the programme.

He was allegedly released within hours of being taken to a police station.

The Met is looking into the handling of historical child sex abuse cases.

The force would not comment on the details of the allegations about Smith put to them by Newsnight.

A spokesman said it was "investigating allegations that police officers acted inappropriately in relation to non-recent child abuse investigations" however, and asked for anyone with information to come forward.

'Secrets act' warning

Information has been passed to Newsnight by a former officer, who is familiar with the original investigation and its closure.

The order to scrap the probe, made after Smith and others had been arrested, came from a senior officer whom the undercover team had never met before, according to the source.

Officers were then ordered to hand over all their evidence - including notebooks and video footage - and were warned to keep quiet about the investigation or face prosecution under the Official Secrets Act, it is claimed.

Newsnight has been told the intelligence-led operation is believed to have started in 1981.

It involved a team of undercover regional crime squad officers, including some from Yorkshire who were based in London for the secret inquiry....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31908431

Undercover elite child sex abuse investigation 'scrapped by police commanders'BBC Newsnight has claimed that an undercover police operation in possession of evidence that a member of the security services and a prominent MP were involved in child abuse was scrapped by commanders shortly after investigating officers sought to make arrests
By Gregory Walton 16 Mar 2015

An undercover police operation that had evidence that a member of the security services and a prominent MP were involved in child abuse was scrapped by commanders shortly after investigating officers sought to make arrests, it has been claimed.

The BBC's Newsnight programme claims to have received information that Liberal MP Cyril Smith was detained in connection with an inquiry into sex parties involving teenage boys but was quickly released.

A former officer familiar with the investigation claimed that detectives were ordered to hand over all of their evidence and subsequently threatened with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act if they disclosed details of the episode, according to Newsnight.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police declined to discuss the new claims but called on "anyone with information which they believe can assist such inquiries to pass it onto police for consideration".

Newsnight says it was informed of operation, believed to have begun in 1981, involving a team of undercover regional crime squad officers.

The squad believed that boys from care homes were being provided for sex parties.

Newsnight has been told that during a three month secret inquiry, officers gathered a substantial amount of evidence of men abusing boys aged around 14 years.

Evidence included photographs and video taken from inside a flat with a hidden camera that had been installed with the help of a caretaker.

Smith was then seized at a property in Streatham where he had been taking part in a sex party

with teenage boys, according to an account given to the BBC.

It is understood he was taken to the former Canon Row police station, opposite the House of Commons, but was released that night.

The UK police watchdog has announced that it is investigating the Metropolitan Police following allegations that the force was involved in a cover-up over child abuse offenses alleged to have been carried out by members of the British establishment between 1970 and 2005.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has launched the investigation after the Met referred themselves over 16 separate allegations - 14 of which are to be investigated, while two referrals of a similar nature are still being assessed. The IPCC will look into claims of corruption within the force and whether they purposefully ignored evidence and halted investigations due to the involvement of MPs and other members of the establishment.

This most recent development comes as a result of Operation Fairbank, first launched by Scotland Yard in 2012, to probe suggestions that high profile figures were involved in historic Westminster paedophile rings. Since then detectives have also opened up inquiries into the murder of three boys who it’s alleged were killed by those involved in such rings, claims which the superintendent overseeing the inquiry called “credible and true”, and have resulted in the police calling for witnesses as they have been unable to identify the victims and no bodies have been found.

Investigations have focused both on the Dolphin Square estate in Pimlico where one victim claims he, along with other young boys, were abused by several high-profile individuals after attending ‘parties’ there, and also on Elm Guest House in Barnes which was reportedly used as a brothel where children were abused. It’s alleged that Liberal Democrat MP Cyril Smith visited frequently in the 1970s and 80s.

One of the 14 referrals for the IPCC says that “a proactive operation targeting young men in Dolphin Square was stopped because officers were too near prominent people”, while another is about “allegations that a politician had spoken with a senior Met Police officer and demanded no action was taken regarding a paedophile ring and boys being procured and supplied to prominent persons in Westminster in the 1970s”....
http://www.newsweek.com/uk-police-watchdog-investigate-westminster-child-abuse-cover-314002

Bill Cosby sexually assaulted me. I didn’t tell because I didn’t want to let black America down.
I let race trump rape.By Jewel Allison March 6
Jewel Allison is a poet and author of "Stealing Peace: Let's Talk About Racism." She is a graduate of New York University, a public speaker and a music educator.

Like many of the women who say they were assaulted by Bill Cosby, it took me two decades to gain the courage to reveal it publicly. His accusers – mostly white, so far – have faced retaliation, humiliation and skepticism by coming forward. As an African American woman, I felt the stakes for me were even higher. Historic images of black men being vilified en masse as sexually violent sent chills through my body. Telling my story wouldn’t only help bring down Cosby; I feared it would undermine the entire African American community.

Greater Manchester police examined the conduct of 13 officers between 2008 and 2010 but found only one warranted disciplinary action
Nigel Bunyan

Thursday 12 March 2015

No police officer will be disciplined over a force-wide failure to tackle the sexual abuse of teenage girls in Rochdale, according to a report by Greater Manchester police (GMP).

The force looked at the conduct of 13 officers between 2008 and 2010, but served notices of misconduct on only seven. Ultimately only one officer, an inspector, was found to have warranted disciplinary action but he was able to retire without any sanction being taken against him. The remaining six officers were given “words of advice” by superiors.

GMP took four years to complete the investigation under the supervision of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The officer who retired had been in a supervisory role in 2008 when Girl A, the teenager at the heart of the landmark 2012 trial of nine paedophiles, made her allegations of abuse. He had been in the force for 30 years.

A second officer failed to serve an abduction notice on Shabir Ahmed, the leader of the gang who preyed on girls visiting two takeaways in Heywood. A third was criticised for yawning while interviewing Girl A about her allegations.

The assistant chief constable of Greater Manchester police, Dawn Copley, acknowledged “mistakes were made and victims let down”. She laid some of the blame at the force’s focus in 2008–10 on targeting such crimes as burglary.

There was also a widespread lack of understanding about the complexities of child sexual exploitation. But she insisted that lessons had been learned in the aftermath of the failings.

Nine men from Rochdale and Oldham were found guilty of offences that included rape and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. Eight were of Pakistani origin, the other from Afghanistan. The court heard the group had plied five victims with drink and drugs and “passed them around” for sex.

Clergy Sex Abuse Victims In Montana's Diocese of Helena To Receive $20 Million In Payments
AP By Matthew Brown 03/05/2015
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Hundreds of victims of clergy sex abuse that spanned decades in Montana stand to receive payments totaling about $20 million, after a federal judge on Wednesday confirmed the bankruptcy reorganization plan for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Terry Myers approved the plan during an hour-long court hearing in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in which representatives of both victims and the diocese voiced their support.

More than 360 abuse claims will now go through an adjudication process to determine final payment amounts. Each allowed claim will receive a minimum of $2,500, and attorneys involved in the case said only a handful of the claims are considered dubious.

A $920,000 trust will be established for victims who come forward in the future.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy last year to resolve abuse claims that prompted lawsuits in state court from two groups of victims in 2011.

The majority of abuse occurred at the hands of Jesuit priests at the Ursuline Academy and the St. Ignatius Mission, both in St. Ignatius, Montana. The abuse ranged from rape and fondling, to perpetrators taking sexual photographs of children. It began in the 1930s and continued through the 1970s, according to court documents.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

- Establishment child abuse: Council staff feared civil servant was murdered for planning to expose colleagues, report claims
Staff reportedly feared a civil servant was killed as a possible outcome for anyone who 'asked too many questions'
- Child abuse at Westminster: We haven't even begun to awaken from the nightmare

"The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken.”

Was Man Murdered For Exposing Paedophile Ring?
12th March 2015

Police investigating Westminster-linked child abuse are examining whether a man was murdered because he was about to expose a paedophile ring operating within a London council.

Sky News has obtained details of an internal investigation documenting sexual assaults and abuse carried out by officers within Lambeth Council in the 1990s.

The unpublished report reveals claims from those within the council that Bulic Forsythe, a manager in the housing department whose murder sparked a nationwide appeal in 1993, may have discovered council property was being used to carry out abuse.

That abuse involved senior figures in Lambeth who were using council premises for the rape of women and children, according to the report's remarkable findings.

They used the basement of Lambeth's housing headquarters, the report says, because "sexual assault could be performed without fear of interruption by other staff".

A senior staff member is accused of watching material with "sadistic, bestial and paedophile themes" which "may have been home-produced by staff of people with whom they associated".

One female staff member was subject to a rape on council premises "of horrendous proportions", such that she was still suffering from serious injuries one month on.

She described being raped alongside children and animals by senior figures in the council.

Although the report, which was prompted by alleged breaches of the council's equal opportunities policy, recommends a criminal investigation, its findings were never formally investigated by the police at the time.

Instead, the perpetrators within the council were dismissed from their positions. The report has never before been made public.

It also reveals that colleagues of Bulic Forsythe, whose family have long believed he was murdered to prevent him from blowing the whistle on events at Lambeth, also feared he had been killed as part of a cover up.

Police investigating a historic sex abuse ring in Westminster are attempting to uncover whether a man was murdered in the Nineties because he planned to expose child abuse at a London council.

An unpublished internal investigation into abuse by staff within Lambeth council seen by Sky News reveals claims that a civil servant was planning to expose how council property was used to carry out sexual assaults.

Bulic Forsythe was beaten to death at his flat in 1993 after he reportedly told a colleague that he knew about a sex ring operating at children’s homes.

The case featured on a Crimewatch reconstruction, in which police appealed for help in tracking down three smartly dressed men who left the flat the day after the murder, but the case remains unsolved.

The report alleges that Forsythe died three days after he told a colleague he planned to report members of staff, and it was feared he was killed as a possible outcome for anyone who “asked too many questions.”

Child abuse at Westminster: We haven't even begun to awaken from the nightmare

Some politicians are finally beginning to realise that they can't bury these scandals under the carpet. But real action is needed, and fast.

by Simon Danczuk 11 March, 2015
“The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken,” warned the eminent social thinker Lloyd Demause back in 1974. Over forty years later this nightmare is not only still with us but is arguably more vivid. Barely a week passes these days without further revelations about endemic child abuse.

Demause’s seminal essay on the evolution of childhood is a reminder that children have always been cruelly exploited. In ancient Greece boy brothels flourished and men kept slave boys for abuse. In the literature of the time, Petronius describes the rape of a seven-year-old girl with women clapping in a long line around the bed. And infants in imperial Rome were castrated in the cradle to be used in brothels by men who liked buggering young castrated boys.

These horrors quite rightly sound like chilling tales from centuries ago. But like the heads of the Hydra, once one monstrous horror is cut off at the source another springs up, manifesting itself differently throughout the ages. What remains constant over the centuries is a kind of droit de seigneur; the right of powerful people to sexually exploit vulnerable children from lower social classes. Historians of the future will undoubtedly look back at our age as a time when MPs like Cyril Smith and other powerful figures abused children in care. When paedophile gangs in Rotherham, Rochdale and Oxfordshire abused poor working class children on an industrial level. And when famous personalities like Gary Glitter, Rolf Harris and Jimmy Savile used their celebrity to cruelly trap and abuse vulnerable young fans.

Downing Street tried to block release of files exposing scale of cover-up
Cabinet Office only caved in after being threatened with High Court Action
Papers expose how much Establishment knew about Cyril Smith's abuse
Margaret Thatcher was told police had probed claims he abused teenagers
She was warned that handing him knighthood risked damaging 'integrity of the honours system' - but went ahead anyway

By Chris Hastings and Martin Beckford for The Mail on Sunday
8 March 2015

Downing Street cynically tried to prevent the release of damaging files exposing the scale of the cover-up over paedophile MP Cyril Smith.

The Cabinet Office repeatedly blocked The Mail on Sunday’s attempts to see the bombshell documents – and caved in only after being threatened with High Court action.

After the shocking year-long fight, we can reveal the content of the papers, which expose just how much the Establishment knew about the late politician’s sexual and physical abuse of young boys.

Nick Clegg and David Cameron, both Ministers in the Cabinet Office, have been accused of ‘colluding’ in the latest cover-up of evidence that could expose VIP paedophile rings.

The secrecy row will also focus attention on Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, who has become known as ‘Sir Cover-Up’ after blocking the release of dozens of messages exchanged by Tony Blair and George W Bush ahead of the Iraq war.
Following The Mail on Sunday’s victory, it can be revealed for the first time that:

- Margaret Thatcher was personally told that police had investigated claims that Smith indecently assaulted teenage boys in the 1960s.

- Thatcher was explicitly warned that awarding a knighthood to the 29-stone Liberal MP risked damaging the ‘integrity of the honours system’, but went ahead anyway.

- A senior Whitehall mandarin took the ‘exceptional’ step of contacting the country’s top prosecutor and police to find out why Smith was never charged with abusing boys at a hostel he helped run....

Smith was knighted in 1988 as recognition of his service as a councillor, mayor and MP in Rochdale, Lancashire.

After his death at the age of 82 in 2010, Clegg said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by the loss and said everyone in Rochdale knew him ‘as a friend’.

British MP slams ex PM Thatcher for pedophile cover-up
March 08, 2015
Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was aware a Liberal MP was suspected of sexually abusing boys but “turned a blind eye” to it. She awarded a knighthood to Cyril Smith, secret documents, released after a yearlong fight for disclosure, reveal.

"There is no doubt about it now, from what we know, that she [Thatcher] turned a blind eye to people who were quite clearly pedophiles. That is absolutely clear,” said Labour MP Simon Danczuk, who exposed Cyril Smith’s abuse in Parliament.

Smith was investigated in 1970, 1988 and in 1999 on suspicion of "indecent assault against teenage boys" in the 1960s.

At the time, the authorities decided there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.

Later, Greater Manchester Police also admitted there had been “overwhelming evidence” Smith abused boys both physically and sexually.

Dossier on Smith’s knighthood shows the then-PM was aware of paedophile allegations against him – but he went before the Queen regardless

Adam Withnall Sunday 08 March 2015

The Government has been accused of trying to suppress a dossier of secret files which reveal that Margaret Thatcher knew about child sex abuse allegations against the MP Cyril Smith – before he was knighted.

The documents, only made public this week after an intervention from the Information Commissioner, include an undated letter marked “secret” warning Ms Thatcher that there was “the risk that such an award could give rise to adverse criticism”.

Smith, who died in 2010, served as the Liberal and later Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale between 1972 and 1992. He was accused of abusing eight boys in the late 1960s and, though he was not prosecuted at the time, police say procedural changes mean he would be today.

The Cabinet Office last night denied a “cover-up” after releasing the 19-page file following repeated demands from the Mail on Sunday, and said the case was “sensitive and complex”.

Among the letters relating to the decision to knight Smith in 1988, the warning letter from Political Honours Scrutiny Committee member Lord Shackleton spelled out to Ms Thatcher that police had investigated Smith in 1970 for “indecent assault against teenage boys”.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Leon Brittan and the Westminster child abuse scandal: 'his fingerprints were over everything'
Tomas Hirst Mar. 6, 2015
Don Hale, former editor of the Bury Messenger, has alleged that former Home Secretary Leon Brittan was actively involved in a cover up of child abuse by a paedophile ring including prominent Westminster MPs.

In an interview with the Daily Beast Hale alleges that a dossier on the abuse handed to him by Labour peer and then Cabinet Minister Barbara Castle, and later seized by Special Branch officers, was suppressed by Brittan. He says the then Home Secretary "was mentioned in everything you picked up, his fingerprints were over everything, he was the instigator".

Brittan passed away in January following a long battle with cancer. Over the past few years he had faced growing questions over what he knew about allegations that a network of paedophiles had operated in Westminster during the 1980s.

He admitted receiving a file from Geoffrey Dickens, then a Conservative MP, regarding the allegations but insisted that he had acted properly in passing the documents over to officials for examination. A review in 2013 supported his claims.

However, Hale's allegations put the spotlight back on Westminster as the scandal continues to gather pace. Days after Brittan's death, Labour MP Tom Watson who has been pivotal in bringing the case back into the public domain said he spoke to several people who allege they were raped by the late politician. One male victim was a child when he was allegedly raped by Brittan....

How Thatcher’s Government Covered Up a VIP Pedophile Ring
Now that most of the major figures are dead, the truth is emerging about the systematic sexual abuse of children by members of the British government. 03.06.15 Nico Hines

LONDON — A newspaper editor was handed startling evidence that Britain’s top law enforcement official knew there was a VIP pedophile network in Westminster, at the heart of the British government. What happened next in the summer of 1984 helps to explain how shocking allegations of rape and murder against some of the country’s most powerful men went unchecked for decades.

Less than 24 hours after starting to inquire about the dossier presented to him by a senior Labour Party politician, the editor was confronted in his office by a furious member of parliament who threatened him and demanded the documents. “He was frothing at the mouth and really shouting and spitting in my face,” Don Hale told The Daily Beast. “He was straight at me like a raging lion; he was ready to knock me through the wall.”

Despite the MP’s explosive intervention, Hale refused to hand over the papers which appeared to show that Leon Brittan, Margaret Thatcher’s Home Secretary, was fully aware of a pedophile network that included top politicians.

The editor’s resistance was futile; the following morning, police officers from the counter-terror and intelligence unit known as Special Branch burst into the newspaper office, seized the material and threatened to have Hale arrested if he ever reported what had been found.

More than 30 years later, an inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse rings, murder, and cover-ups has been launched by the British government after Scotland Yard detectives said they believed statements by victims who claimed they were systematically abused as young boys at sex abuse parties attended by judges, politicians, intelligence officers, and staff at the royal palaces.

In 1983, a controversial MP, Geoffrey Dickens, had made a series of incendiary claims about active pedophiles in the corridors of power. He handed a file containing the names of alleged perpetrators to Leon Brittan; publicly the authorities shrugged off the claims and no trial or prosecution would follow. The dossier mysteriously disappeared....

Baroness Castle, then Barbara Castle, a Labour member of the European parliament, told Hale she did not trust Brittan to investigate the allegations thoroughly....

Worried about the integrity of the Home Office investigation, Castle had tried to interest the major newspapers in the classified documents but she turned to Hale when they rejected her overtures. “She was saying, ‘I’ve been everywhere else, I’ve been to the nationals, nobody would touch it with a barge pole, but what do you think?’” Hale recalled. “As a journalist of course I was interested.”

Great Britain’s notoriously tough libel laws insured that obviously he couldn’t repeat the allegations included in the Home Office papers that about 16 MPs and members of the House of Lords, and 30 high-profile figures from the Church of England, private schools, and big business, were members of, and advocates for, the Paedophile Information Exchange. The shadowy group, which operated partly in the open, campaigned for the age of consent to be abolished and incest to be legalized. It also allowed pedophiles to send each other secure mail and to meet in person....

There is growing evidence that MI5 and MI6, Britain’s security services, took a similar view. MI5 is alleged to have repeatedly blocked investigations into a sex abuse ring at the Kincora children’s home in Northern Ireland in order to protect its intelligence-gathering operation.

The longtime deputy director of MI6, and former High Commissioner in Canada, Peter Hayman was himself allegedly a pedophile, and was ultimately named as such in parliament by Geoffrey Dickens. Hayman had been caught with explicit material in 1978 but no charge was brought. Secret files discovered at the National Archives this year revealed that the attorney general at the time believed it wasn’t in the public interest for Hayman to be prosecuted. Prime Minister Thatcher ordered his depravity to be concealed from the public....http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/06/britain-s-horrific-vip-pedophile-cover-up.html

A general view showing housing in Rotherham on September 1, 2014 in Rotherham, England. South Yorkshire Police are launching an independent investigation into its handling of the Rotherham child abuse scandal and will also probe the role of public bodies and council workers. A report claims at least 1,400 children as young as 11 were sexually abused from 1997- 2013 in Rotherham Care Homes but no council staff will face disciplinary action.

Many of the child sex abuse scandals that have shocked Britain in recent years involve victims who were supposed to be under the protection of the state—children identified as at risk by child protective services and in the care of local authorities.

Many in Britain have characterized the abuses as a thing of the past. Surely such horrors could never happen today. But an analysis of the most recent official data shows that each year the government loses track of around 2,000 vulnerable children in care, even as reports of human trafficking inside the country are on the rise....

Bad record-keeping has been a feature of the abuse scandals. Last autumn, a review by the U.K.’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children found that between 1979 and 1999, the U.K. Home Office had “lost or destroyed” 114 files relating to reported child abuse by high-ranking people, including senior politicians. The review came after a report last year from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, revealed that at least 1,400 minors were subjected to widespread, organized child-sex abuse from 1997 to 2013, including many who were in care....

The U.K.’s Human Trafficking Centre’s latest assessment shows a total of 2,744 people, including 602 children, reported as trafficked for exploitation in the U.K. in 2013, up 22 percent from 2012. The organization stresses that the numbers reflect only what’s been reported and are rough figures. Not all reports indicate confirmed trafficking, but, at the same time, the totals could be much higher, as not all incidents are reported. Victims were forced to work in brothels, hotels, private homes or on the street as sex workers, and also forced into domestic servitude or to work on building sites or in farms and factories....http://www.newsweek.com/2015/03/13/britains-missing-children-310701.html

A council worker who wrote a series of increasingly exasperated emails warning of child abuse by Asian men in Oxfordshire was silenced after an official complaint by senior officials about his attitude, it has emerged.

Details came to light in a report published yesterday revealing that 373 girls were likely to have been victims of grooming, rape and trafficking after police and social services failed to take victims and their own staff seriously.

The worker, an ex-detective, raised repeated concerns with the director of children’s services and other officials at the county council in 2007 after seeing a 13-year-old in bed with an adult. He also reported a stream of men going into a flat every night and emerging in the early hours.

But instead of dealing with his complaints, a senior council official complained about his behaviour and his manager made an unreserved apology for the “unprofessional way” in which he had acted....

The serious case review, produced by Dr Alan Bedford, found that children as young as 12 were treated by police as “wayward girls”, complicit in their own abuse, despite being groomed by adults who had ensnared them through drink, drugs and menace.

One detective reported that a 14-year-old girl had initiated sex with two adult men, and reports used the term “boyfriend” for men in their 30s seen with girls as young as 13....

The report said the victims’ accounts were often ignored or seen as exaggerated when they did come forward to authorities....

A man who lives near Spokane, Wash., is suing the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese saying he was sexually assaulted in the 1990s by a priest who was his seventh-grade history teacher at a Catholic school in Wichita Falls.

The victim, identified in court documents as John Doe 117, also named Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson in the suit filed this week in Tarrant County district court.

The victim is seeking over $1 million in damages for emotional anguish, medical expenses and diminished earning capacity because of what is described in the suit as a “sadistic ritual of sexual abuse” by the late priest John Sutton.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Police may charge data centre in largest ever child abuse images bust
by Lisa Vaas on March 4, 2015

Canadian police have seized over 1.2 petabytes of data from the dark net - more than four times the amount of data in the US Library of Congress - in what could be the largest child abuse image investigation ever.

In what would be a game-changing shift in prosecutorial tactics, police are considering going beyond the traditional method of prosecuting individuals and will potentially also press charges against the owner of the drives that hold that material - most likely, an Ontario data centre that houses the abusive images.

Up to 7500 people - the number of unique IP addresses associated with the data seized - from nearly 100 countries could be implicated....

Police have developed password-cracking software that can cycle through 500,000 possibilities per second in order to sift through the seized data, which contains approximately 1.5 million compressed, password-protected RAR files, stored and analysed on the additional hardware they've had to purchase for the job.

The grandparents of a nine-year-old boy, his uncle, and a pastor were granted bail after a suspected satanic ritual that led to the boy's alleged rape and molestation, according to a media report....

Magistrate Sharlotte Sithole said the medical report from 2013, when the boy was seven years-old, had no indications of sexual abuse or penetration.

On Monday, investigating officer Lt-Col Hendrik de Jager described the boy's ordeal and said interviews revealed that over a period, possibly several years, the child was allegedly raped and molested multiple times by the group.

He said that there were threats to the boy and his mother, but on Tuesday Sitole said that there was no evidence of the threats.

The Star reported that De Jager said the uncle and grandparents allegedly took the boy to the pastor's church once, where the adults donned masks and red robes and made a circle with red stones.

'Rape den' initiation school branded girls with hot irons: testimonySapa 04 March, 2015
An initiation school in Mpumalanga was used as a sex den where 21 girls aged between nine and 17 were repeatedly raped and physically abused, the Nelspruit circuit of the High Court in Pretoria heard on Wednesday.

One of the 21 girls testified against Johan Jabulani Mlombo, 48 and his wife, Sister Mapalase Khoza, 41, both from Masoyi near Hazyview, a Sapa correspondent reported.

The couple have been charged with assaulting and raping the girls at their initiation school in Mahushu, on August 29, 2012.

Both accused have pleaded not guilty to 27 charges of rape, three of sexual assault, and 19 of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. They have been granted R1000 bail each.

...."I was the sixth victim to be called that night. She told me I had to see the big initiation and after we entered the main house, accused two asked me to enter inside a dark room.

"When I refused, she pushed me inside, closed the door, locking me inside with a male person. She did not enter but remained outside," she said.

The girl testified the man inside gave her a cup of water to drink. He then told her never to tell anyone what was going to happen next.

"Although it was dark inside, I could feel he was naked on top and covered with a cloth at the bottom, because I touched and felt him. Using his hand, he removed my panties, climbed on top of me and raped me," she said.

The girl testified she had been at the initiation school since June 2012.

Former Knox head admits he impeded child abuse investigation on purpose
Ian Paterson told police investigating paedophile teachers at the school he was not aware of any complaints, which he admits was a lie, royal commission hears Bridie Jabour and agencies
Tuesday 3 March 2015

The former headmaster of Knox Grammar school has admitted deliberately impeding a police investigation into paedophile teachers working at the school.

Ian Paterson was approached by Inspector Elizabeth Cullen from the child protection enforcement agency about complaints of child sex abuse at the school in 1996. Paterson told Cullen he was not aware of any complaints, which he has admitted was a lie.

He made the admission in his second day of evidence at the royal commission into institutional responses to child abuse.

He also directed Cullen to files he knew would contain no information. It was not until 2009 that teachers from Knox were charged with child sex abuse offences which dated back to the 1980s.

In reply to counsel advising the royal commission, David Lloyd, Paterson agreed he knew this would impede the investigation.

Paterson told the inquiry on Tuesday he did not believe a student who complained a teacher touched him inappropriately in the 1980s because the student was a “drama boy”.

He also admitted to not contacting police after another student had his genitals groped by a man in a balaclava – suspected to be a teacher – while the boy was in his bed in one of the boarding houses.

Paterson said he did not report either incident to police because it did not occur to him and he was not aware groping was a crime.

Former Knox Grammar headmaster Ian Paterson’s admissions rock Royal Commission
March 04, 2015
THE former headmaster of Knox Grammar has addressed allegations he groped a teenage girl at a school musical production in 1989.

Lucy Perry, the CEO of a global women’s health charity has told a child sex abuse inquiry Ian Paterson cupped her bottom and put his hand near her genitals during rehearsals for a joint school production of Guys and Dolls.

Dr Paterson said on Wednesday it was “absolutely not” true that he had inappropriately touched the then 15-year-old girl.

Giving evidence at the inquiry, Dr Paterson earlier admitted deliberately impeding a police investigation into pedophile teachers working at the school.

Fronting the royal commission into child sex abuse, Ian Paterson said on Wednesday that when a police inspector from the child protection unit approached him in 1996 about six teachers at Knox about whom there had been complaints, he did not give her full information....

The admission follows evidence given yesterday, when the man who was the principal over three decades of sex abuse at the prestigious Sydney school said he didn’t know touching was a crime and “wasn’t aware” that touching, groping, and cases of sexual molestation reported to him were a matter for the police.

Appearing before the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse, former Knox Grammar headmaster Ian Paterson confronted claims he had covered up sex abuse over his 30 years at the school’s helm from 1969 to 1998....

When a boy complained in 1989 that teacher Damien Vance had groped and propositioned him Dr Paterson told the 15-year-old to take time out — go to the library and think about the allegations.

When pressed by David Lloyd, counsel assisting the royal commission, as to why he did not tell police Dr Paterson said: “Because the boy was a drama boy”....

Dr Paterson didn’t report the incident to police of the Department of Family and Community services (then DOCS). He said it never crossed his mind.

He denied covering up the attack for the sake of the school’s reputation, but had not considered “touching” a crime.

“I’m not aware that was a matter for the police or a crime.”

GLOWING REFERENCES FOR OFFENDERS

In 1991 Vance was given a “strong” reference by Dr Paterson. The reference allowed Vance to register with the Victorian Department of Education as a permanent teacher.

Dr Paterson was questioned about another incident, where a balaclava-wearing man hid under a boy’s dormitory bed and groped a 14-year-old student.

He had not considered this a “very grave sexual assault” and defended not calling the police.

The man was believed by students to be teacher Chris Fotis, the school’s boarding master at the time.

Fotis was later asked to resign over a separate incident when he was caught masturbating in a car outside the school, but didn’t leave without a glowing reference from Dr Paterson....

Johannesburg - A suspected satanic ritual at a Boksburg church is at the centre of a case in which a 9-year-old boy was allegedly raped and molested by his grandparents, uncle and pastor.

The case was originally not pursued in 2013, when the boy was younger.

However, the SAPS’s Occult-Related Crime Unit was later brought in to investigate, culminating in the arrest of all four alleged abusers last month.

....Lieutenant-Colonel Hendrik de Jager said interviews with the child had revealed that over a period – possibly of several years – the group had allegedly raped and molested the boy multiple times.

On one occasion, the grandparents and uncle had allegedly taken the child to their place of worship, the Full Gospel Church of God in Witfield, Boksburg, where the pastor was based.

The four adults donned masks and red robes and constructed a circle of red stones, surrounding the child while they prayed in strange tongues.

They gave the child something to drink, while the pastor and uncle took off their clothes and began having sex.

The child was asked to touch the private parts of each of the adults while they, in turn, fondled him.

De Jager said the child was then told to take off his clothes.

The uncle then stood behind him and penetrated him – though it was not clear if this was done with an object.

The lieutenant-colonel told the court that the granting of bail to the four accused would be detrimental to the child’s mental health, as there had been numerous threats against the boy and his parents.

De Jager said a man who identified himself as a relative had phoned him to get off the case and threatened to strangle the child and his mother.

The parents had also reported that the uncle’s wife had driven past their house screaming: “We’re going to get you!”

He said the reason the boy was particularly frightened of the grandfather was that the elderly man had pointed a gun at the child and threatened to kill him if he spoke about the abuse.

De Jager said that, based on information from the child, police were able to find the grandfather’s firearm – further proof of the alleged threat.

Defence lawyer Henk Strydom insisted that his four clients would deny all the allegations, and that they wished to prove their innocence in court.

He insisted that the State’s case was weak, as the medical reports taken in 2013 had indicated there were no signs of abuse.

Strydom said police had found no evidence of any satanic rituals going on at the church. No red robes or masks were ever found.